Dumbledore's staffing problems (was Re: Why Snape turned

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 159838

 
> Carol responds:
> But why would young snape be applying for a job in, say, October 
1979
>snip<
 Trelawney is clearly applying for a sudden vacancy after
> the death or incapacitation of the current Divination teacher. 

Potioncat:
It seems that Trelawney is applying for a sudden vacancy, but we 
don't know that. Before HBP most of us thought she was applying in 
the spring for an expected opening the coming fall. (most of us 
guessing spring because of the weather.) If ---big if--- Trelawney's 
statements in HBP are intended by JKR to be clues and are accurate, 
she was applying in October. 

So why is she applying now? Sudden vacancy at Hogwarts? Position 
unfilled at Hogwarts and sudden need by Trelawney? She appears to be 
single but could be a widow. So, the previous teacher could have had 
a sudden change in health or Trelawney could have had a sudden need 
for an income due to a change in marital status--or for other reasons.

We also don't know if her statement about Snape looking for hints has 
any base in reality. It would mean that as she remembered it, there 
were two openings that October. I think with a war going on, two 
vacancies might not be unheard of. We don't know if he was applying 
or had applied for DADA at that point, but I don't think we should 
completely dismiss it.


Carol:
 I conjecture that
> LV sent him to apply for the DADA job, perhaps to get him out of the
> way, in the summer of 1981, and DD, to protect his spy, gave him the
> newly vacated Potions position (Slughorn must have just retired)
> instead of the cursed DADA position. (LV can't complain; Snape has 
his
> cover story that DD doesn't want him anywhere near the Dark Arts and
> at least Snape is at Hogwarts where LV wants him. No doubt Snape and
> DD want him there, too, but for altogether different reasons.)

Potioncat:
I agree that LV sent Snape to apply, but I think Snape applied in 79, 
80 and 81. I'm not sure when DD found out that Snape was a DE. But I 
think Snape had been kept pretty much under cover. I suspect he had 
done very well on his DADA and LV was planning to put him in 
Hogwarts. I don't think he put him there because a child was to be 
born or had been born. LV never expected that child to go to 
Hogwarts. I think he wanted someone at Hogwarts for two reasons. One 
to keep an eye on DD and the other to mine the castle for its secrets 
and magic.

When I say I'm not sure when DD knew Snape was a DE, I mean I'm no 
longer sure he knew in 79. If he merely suspected Snape, it may be 
why he placed Trelawney in protection and he may have kept a very 
close eye on defiant couples.


>Carol: 

 LV would of course have wanted him to
> apply for the DADA position, but maybe DD and Snape agreed in 
advance
> that he'd be given Potions. I like that scenario, and it would
> eliminate any problems created by young Snape's repeatedly being
> turned down for the DADA position when he's been told that DD 
doesn't
> want him to be tempted to the Dark side by exposure to the Dark Arts
> (not a real hazard of that class unless you're Barty Jr.) but being
> given Potions on the third application. 

Potioncat:
I keep wondering why Slughorn retired at what was an early age--he 
seems pretty fit 15 years later. Was someone pressuring him to leave 
Hogwarts? What has he been doing all these years? Did DD encourage 
him to leave in order to create a position for Snape?

So now we have 2 openings. Potions and DADA and we readers have 
reason to think Snape was good at both. DD says he'd like try Snape 
at Potions first. I think we have canon via an interview that DD said 
that, but I'm not sure if we have canon for DD saying that DADA 
would "bring out the worst in him." It may just be that JKR said 
that. Still, it's a lovely play on meaning.

I agree with Carol that getting Snape into Hogwarts pleased LV and I 
think at this point it was planned between Snape and DD. I'm no 
longer so sure that Snape understood why DD wasn't giving him DADA.


 
> Carol, who agrees with Nikalamati that Snape is DDM and spying for 
DD
> for at least a year before teaching at Hogwarts but also agrees with
> Mike that the incompatibility of Trelawney's and DD's versions of 
the
> eavesdropping story requires some explanation beyond details we 
don't
> know yet


Potioncat--me too.